Sharp opinions about mines and mining from Jack Caldwell

2014 Survey Results: Canadian Mine Salaries, Wages, and Benefits

Just published by CostMine is the 2014 Survey Results – Canadian Mine Salaries, Wages and Benefits. I will survey some of the data in this and future postings. First a look at average Canadian Mine wages (In Canadian dollars):

Surface mines

Electrician = 37.84

Mechanic = 37.08

Surface drill operator = 38.06

Heavy equipment operator = 34.74

Laborer = 27.95

Underground Mines

Electrician = 38.83

Mechanic = 37.3

Miner = 33.89

Underground drill operator = 34.26

Underground laborer = 27.18

The range of wages is large. Consider the range for Mill Operators:

Mill equipment operator = 24.57 to 58.46 with an average of 35.60

Mill laborer = 19.65 to 42.25 with an average of 29.45

And wages vary across the country. Here are averages for eastern versus western surface mine folk”

Electrician = 32.80 vs 40.74

Mechanic = 32.42 vs 39.81

Dragline operator = 33.27 vs 39.14

Laborer = 24.74 vs 29.55

Wages have gone up in the past 12 months. For example, of the 22 eastern mines reporting wages went up 2.9% and of the 27 western mines reporting, wages went up 3.1%.

Good new really.

The report is chock-full of data. The above is a snapshot. I will write about this report and salaries etc. in future blog postings. Meanwhile go to CostMine to purchase a copy for all the data.